Locking divider for a refrigerator storage compartment

ABSTRACT

A divider for a pan, drawer or the like compartment in a refrigerator is constituted by multiple, pivotally interconnected pieces which can be selectively locked in a desired position to compartmentalize the storage compartment. The divider defines an over-center device that can be snapped into a locked in a desired position in the compartment, while being locked in position as a result of compressive forces being applied by front and rear walls of the pan or drawer. That is, the pan or drawer is preferably made of plastic and includes walls which deflect upon locking the divider in place. When the divider is opened or unlatched, all compressive forces are removed and the divider can be easily adjusted within the pan or drawer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, moreparticularly, to a divider used to selectively separate a storagecompartment in a refrigerator.

2. Discussion of the Prior Art

In the art of refrigerators, it is widely known to employ a plurality ofshelves and compartments, including drawers and pans, to store a widerange of food products. For instance, in a fresh food compartment,shelves, drawers, pans, removable bins and the like are commonly foundboth in the body of the compartment and on the inside of the door forstoring food items. When storing the food items, it is generallyundesirable to enable excessive shifting. This is particularly true inconnection with door supported food items in order to prevent the fooditems from falling when the door is abruptly opened or closed. Toaddress this concern, it is known to employ retainers in connection withdoor supported shelves, bins, dairy compartments and the like to dividethe storage zones, while limiting the potential shifting of the fooditems.

While retainers of this kind have been advantageously employed inconnection with shelves and other storage zones on refrigerator doors,little has been done in effectively providing dividers for use inconnection with refrigerator drawers, pans and the like. That is, atypical slidable drawer or pan in a refrigerator defines a singlecompartment for the storage of food items which are generally laid ontop of one another or simply allowed to shift throughout the compartmentover time. Obviously, such an arrangement does not represent anefficient and effective overall storage configuration. Although thestorage compartment could be molded or otherwise formed with a dividerin order to establish multiple storage zones, it would be desirable tohave an adjustable divider which could be used to selectively sectionoff any part of a refrigerator drawer, pan or the like compartment forimproved organizational purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a divider for a pan, drawer or thelike storage compartment in a refrigerator wherein the dividerconstitutes multiple, pivotally interconnected pieces which can beselectively locked in any one of an essentially infinite number ofpositions to compartmentalize a storage zone. In accordance with themost preferred form of the invention, the divider defines an over-centerdevice that can be arranged in a desired position in the storagecompartment, while being locked in position as a result of compressiveforces being applied by front and rear walls of the pan or drawer. Thatis, the pan or drawer is preferably made of plastic and includes wallswhich deflect upon locking the divider in place. When the divider isopened or unlatched, all compressive forces are removed and the dividercan be easily adjusted to essentially an infinite number of positionswithin the pan or drawer.

Additional objects, features and advantages of the present inventionwill become more readily apparent from the following detaileddescription of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with thedrawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts inthe several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator provided with the dividerof the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective, sectional view of a storagecompartment shown in FIG. 1 incorporating the divider of the invention;

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the divider of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the divider of FIG. 2 in an initial mountingposition; and

FIG. 5 is a side view of the divider, similar to that of FIG. 4, shownin a locked position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With initial reference to FIG. 1, a refrigerator associated with thepresent invention is generally indicated at 2. As shown, refrigerator 2includes a cabinet 5 within which is defined an upper fresh foodcompartment 8 and a lower freezer compartment 9. Also depicted areupper, central and lower hinges 12-14 which are used in connection withpivotally mounting fresh food and freezer doors of refrigerator 2, withthe fresh food and freezer doors not being shown in order to illustrateinternal components of refrigerator 2. At this point, it should berealized that, although refrigerator 2 is shown to constitute a bottommount style refrigerator, the invention is equally applicable to otherrefrigerator styles, including top mount and side-by-side units.

In the embodiment shown, fresh food compartment 8 includes a pluralityof spaced shelves 20-23, as well as a plurality of storage drawers26-29. Storage drawer 29 actually constitutes a crisper drawer whichextends across substantially the entire width of fresh food compartment8. On the other hand, freezer compartment 9 is shown to include upperand lower racks 32 and 33 for storing food items to be frozen. In anycase, the present invention is particularly directed to the inclusion ofone or more compartment dividers 40 for fresh food compartment 8 and/orfreezer compartment 9 of refrigerator 2. In the preferred embodimentshown, one divider 40 is shown arranged in storage drawer 29.

In general, as best shown in FIG. 2, storage drawer 29 is molded ofplastic to include a front wall 50, a bottom wall 51, a rear wall 52 anda pair of opposing side walls 53. Front wall 50 includes a handle 55which can be selectively grasped to slide storage drawer 29 between anaccess position shown in FIG. 1 and a recessed position. Bottom wall 51of storage drawer 29 is also preferably formed with a plurality offore-to-aft extending and laterally spaced, raised ribs 58 upon whichfood items can be supported. In addition, rear wall 52 has an upperportion 62 which leads to a rearwardly extending flange 65 (also seeFIGS. 4 and 5).

Reference will now be made to FIGS. 2 and 3 is describing theconstruction of divider 40 in accordance with the most preferredembodiment of the invention. In general, divider 40 is preferablyintegrally molded of plastic. Specifically, divider 40 is molded of twomain pieces 75 and 76 which are pivotally interconnected at a connectorjoint 78. Main piece 75 includes a main body 82 which has associatedtherewith an upper ledge 84. Upper ledge 84 preferably has a flared rearsection 86 which terminates in a central hook element 90 (see FIGS. 4and 5). Main body 82 also includes a lower ledge 96 leading to a rearflange 98 that connects to flared rear section 86. At a front of mainpiece 75, connector joint 78 includes a pair of spaced guide walls 100and 101 which defines a groove 104 there between. Connector joint 78 isalso formed with a laterally extending spacer sleeve 106, a frontarcuate wall 108 and a rear arcuate wall 110.

On the other hand, piece 76 of divider 40 includes a body portion 120about a substantial percentage of which extends an outer ledge portion122. At one rear side of connector piece 76 is formed a disk element125, while a tongue member 128 projects from a central rear zone ofpiece 76. With this construction, pieces 75 and 76 of divider 40 areinterconnected for relative pivotal movement with tongue 128 projectinginto groove 104 and disk element 125 being positioned against spacersleeve 106, within the confines of front and rear arcuate walls 108 and110. Preferably, pieces 75 and 76 are permitted to pivot relative toeach other through no more than ninety degrees and, more preferably, tonot substantially greater than forty-five degrees. If desired,additional structure could be provided, such as interrelated stops andchannels in spacer sleeve 106 and disk element 125, to further limit thepivoting of piece 76 relative to piece 75.

With particular reference to FIGS. 2, 4 and 5, the manner in whichdivider 40 is employed to compartmentalize storage drawer 29 inaccordance with the invention will now be described in detail. Ingeneral, divider 40 can be positioned in any desired position laterallybetween side walls 53 of storage drawer 29. In this sense, there existsan infinite number of positions between the two extremes defined by sidewalls 53. With initial reference to FIG. 4, divider 40 is first angledin order to place hook element 90 about rearwardly extending flange 65.To aid in this mounting, a vertex section 150 at a rear of piece 75abuts rear wall 52 in order to act as a fulcrum. At this point, pieces75 and 76 are not aligned, but rather assume the position generallyillustrated in FIG. 4. Thereafter, an apex section 155 of piece 76 willabut front wall 50. Still, divider 40 is slightly angled. However,pushing down on upper ledge 84 above connector joint 78 will, in fact,lengthen divider 40.

Given the overall length of divider 40 and the distance between frontand rear walls 50 and 52, the straightening of divider 40 will causestorage drawer 29 to deflect in order to exert a compressive force ondivider 40. At the same time, connector joint 78 actually establishes anover-center acting hinge. This combination functions to snap-lockdivider 40 in place, thereby establishing multiple compartments withinstorage drawer 29. Of course, divider 40 can be opened or unlatched,whereupon all compressive forces are removed and divider 40 can beeasily adjusted within storage drawer 29 for optimizing the organizationof stored food items within storage drawer 29.

Although described with reference to a preferred embodiment of theinvention, it should be readily understood that various changes and/ormodifications can be made to the invention without departing from thespirit thereof. For instance, although divider 40 is disclosed inconnection with storage drawer 29 which extends across substantially theentire width of fresh food compartment 8, divider 40 could also beemployed in connection with smaller drawers and the like. In general,the invention is only intended to be limited by the scope of thefollowing claims.

1. A refrigerator comprising: a cabinet within which is defined a freshfood compartment and a freezer compartment; a plurality of shelvesarranged in the fresh food compartment; a storage drawer extendingsubstantially an entire width of the fresh food compartment, saidstorage drawer including front, bottom, rear and side walls; and adivider extending between and against the front and rear walls of thestorage drawer in order to divide the storage drawer into multiplestorage zones that collectively span substantially an entire width ofthe fresh food compartment.
 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1,wherein storage drawer is located below multiple shelves supported inthe fresh food compartment.
 3. The refrigerator according to claim 2,further comprising: a plurality of additional storage drawers locatedabove the storage drawer.
 4. The refrigerator according to claim 1,wherein the fresh food compartment is arranged above the freezercompartment.
 5. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein thestorage drawer constitutes a crisper drawer. 6-25. (canceled)